November 2019 | Volume 3, Number 11

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In this month's edition ...

• Multi Nations tournament
• OLBA District Chairs weekend 
• Provincial Playdown Dates for 2020
• Clubs needed for Coaching clinics
• Shirley Lenarduzzi obituary
• Notes from a Novice
• Club development workshops
• New Horizons Grant Assistance
• Bowls England - Disability Bowls Advisory Guide
• Winter is Coming
• Phillip Francis profile
• Bowls Canada Launches New Development Committee
• Cooperative Advertising

Canada Medal Haul at the Multi Nations Tournament in Australia

It was a Gold, Silver and Bronze kind of day at the 2019 Multi-Nations Championships. Ryan Bester and John Bezear were Golden in Men’s Pairs, Kelly McKerihen shone a bright Silver in Women’s Singles and Ryan Bester brought home the Bronze in Men’s Singles! Outstanding efforts by the entire team in all disciplines rounded out a fabulous experience for #TeamCanada on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Congratulations to Ryan, Kelly, John, Leanne Chinery, Cameron Lefresne, Jackie Foster, Greg Wilson, Joanna Cooper, Jordan Kos, Rob Law and Coaching Staff Terry Scott, Derek Dillon and Raelene Peters on a job well done!!

Full Results Multi Nations Tournament 
Results:

Gold Medal Matches

Women’s Singles – Ellen Ryan (Australia Green) def. Kelly McKerihen (Canada) 21-4

Women’s Pairs – Ellen Ryan, Karen Murphy (Australia Green) def. New Zealand 13-12

Women’s Triples – Carla Krizanic, Kristina Krstic, Rebecca Van Asch (Austalia Gold) def. Lynsey Clarke, Chloe Stewart, Natasha Scott (Australia Green) 18-16

Women’s Fours – Dawn Hayman, Carla Krizanic, Rebecca Van Asch, Kelsey Cottrell (Australia Gold) def by. Lynsey Clarke, Karen Murphy, Chloe Stewart, Natasha Scott (Australia Green) 10-17

Men’s Singles – Ray Pearse (Australia Gold) def. Gary Kelly (Ireland) 21-16

Men’s Pairs – New Zealand def by. Canada 12-17

Men’s Triples – Barrie Lester, Corey Wedlock, Aaron Teys (Australia Green) def by. New Zealand 12-16

Men’s Fours – Wayne Ruediger, Nathan Rice, Ben Twist, Aron Sherriff (Australia Gold) def. Barrie Lester, Jesse Noronha, Corey Wedlock, Aaron Teys (Australia Green) 14-9

Bronze Medal Matches

Women’s Singles – Kristina Krstic (Australia Gold) def. Jo Edwards (New Zealand) 21-14

Women’s Pairs – Dawn Hayman, Kelsey Cottrell (Australia Gold) def. Wales 20-19

Women’s Triples – South Africa def by. New Zealand 11-16

Women’s Fours – NZ def. Wales 14-4

Men’s Singles – Aaron Wilson (Australia Green) def by. Ryan Bester (Canada) 15-21

Men’s Pairs – Ray Pearse, Nathan Rice (Australia Gold) def by. Jesse Noronha, Aaron Wilson (Australia Gold) 17-21

Men’s Triples – Wayne Ruediger, Ben Twist, Aron Sherriff (Australia Gold) def. Ireland 24-13

Men’s Fours – South Africa def. Malta 13-11

District Chair meeting

On the weekend of November 16th, OLBA Board of Directors met with District Chairs and Bowls Canada personnel for the purpose of discussing a number of important topics. The Board also met separately to discuss and approve the operating budget for the year November 1, 2019 to October 31, 2020.

Key items resulting from these meetings are as follows.

Safe Sport - led by Anna Mees of BCB

As we discussed at our Fall meeting on October 19th, the Federal Government has made it compulsory for national sport organizations (NSO), like Bowls Canada (BCB), to implement a safe sport program to eliminate abuse and harassment in their sport. Part of this program is to include mandatory training and criminal background checks for executives, coaches and officials. As provincial sport organizations (PSO) like the OLBA are members of NSO's, they are required to comply with these regulations as well. By extension, PSO members also fall under this legislation.

Membership

There was a presentation on membership from Jake Schuknecht of BCB which was a tie-in to a presentation by Bill McCollam and James Rimmer of the OLBA with results of the Member Survey. Among the many important points coming out of the survey are six main reasons why members leave the sport. These are:

• Bad experiences - 30%
• Socially a bad fit - 15%
• Didn't find the sport engaging -15%.
• Frustrated from lack of development - 10%
• People had other priorities - 20%
• Health issues - 10%

The group discussed a couple of new initiatives to help address retention and membership issues through the use of market segmentation and member communications. More to come on these.

Offers of services.

There were offers of services made to the District Chairs. These include:

• Jake Schuknecht's offer to provide free workshops to Districts whose clubs want to grow their membership.

• Jason Currie, Board member and Chair of the Officiating Committee has offered to hold an Umpire Training Course for Districts.

• Charles Roach, Board member and Chair of the Greens Committee has offered to visit any club to give advice about greens care.

Please contact the names above to take advantage of any or all of these offers.

OLBA Budget.

The Board reviewed budget submissions from the various committees. After deliberation and adjustments the budget was approved. Details were provided to District Chairs and will be published in a future newsletter.

Provincial Playdown Dates for 2020

Clubs Needed to Host

Any clubs interested in hosting a club coach clinic, competitive coach clinic or player development camp should contact their District Chair, District Coaching Coordinator or the OLBA Co-chairs for Coaching and Player Development (Dave Burrows - Districts 1 to 8, or Mary Lou Richards - Districts 9 - 16).

Please reach out before Christmas so we can get them scheduled for the 2020 season.

Notes from a Novice

Thoughts from a lawn bowls novice - a periodic series from a relatively new bowler learning the sport.

September 23 by Bill McCollam Markham

Novice Singles Championship part 2 ( >> part 1)

I’ve never been sure if you want to play your toughest competition early in a tournament - or sort of work your way up to that level. Not that you really have a say. Anyway, I noticed right away that I was in a pod with an excellent bowler from Kingston who had knocked me out of the competition last year in the quarter finals. So a little bit of mixed feelings then - Pierre is a consummate gentleman and sportsman and I really like playing against him - but, couldn’t I start with just a little easier competition?

The team at Stouffville LBC had done a great job with the greens. One of the advantages of having the Provincials held in my home district is that I recently had several chances to play on this green - so no excuses there! Pierre was his usual steady self and built a decent lead through 7 ends. In the 8th, he was up four or so when I managed to get 2 on the jack and had last bowl for a chance at 3. It looked good all the way down, but was two feet too heavy and moved the jack away into a cluster of his bowls... sigh. I fought back to make it respectable - but fell 21 - 14.

Losing your first game in a round robin pretty well means you have to win every game thereafter. Which can be intimidating - but sort of liberating too. In my mind anyway, I just assume my tournament is over and just play for the fun of it and the competition. As it happened, my next two games were against competition not quite as formidable and I was able to win, enabling me to back into the final day.

The final tournament day for men and women was held at Richmond Hill LBC. As at Stouffville, the volunteers had done a great job with the greens and gave us a big welcome. One big change was that the greens at Richmond were running much faster than at Stouffville. The format for the last day is that the eight survivors from the round robin play one knockout game, to thin the field to 4. The remaining players then have a semi-final game, with winners going on to the finals and losers to the consolation game.

I kept my expectations kind of low. After all, I had barely squeaked into the last day, and my first game was against the silver medal winner from last year. I also knew his game quite well and had assumed from the beginning that he was likely the tournament favourite. I didn’t really have a game plan other than to try to get the first bowl close and keep applying pressure. To my surprise, I jumped into an early lead and was able to keep it throughout the game. On a couple of ends I was in trouble, but managed to use weighted shots to reduce the damage. In the end I was in a kind of daze when the game was over and we were shaking hands. By getting into the medal games, I had surpassed my objective of beating my last years results.

The best kind of games in tournaments are the ones where the competition is keen and there is also great camaraderie. I’m not really one for gamesmanship and head games. I prefer both players pushing each other to exceed and taking pleasure from a mutually-played good game. On that note, my semi-final game was a blast. I hadn’t met my opponent before, but for him to even get out of this club (Lindsay LBC) - I knew he’d be fierce competition. And he was. As well as being a really cool guy. It was one of those games where we chose different hands (me the tight side and him the swingy side) and battled every end. It stood at 17 - 17 when I was able to make a nice trail on my third bowl to lie 3. Chad’s last bowl into unfamiliar grass came up short and I barely edged my last bowl into the count for the win.

The final game was against my nemesis, Pierre. As well as eliminating me from the competition last year (21 - 19), Pierre had beaten me in the round-robin yesterday and had gone undefeated in this tournament. So I knew I had to be on my game to even keep it close. And just a side note here: My Mom’s 85th birthday party had been scheduled that afternoon. I had honestly thought it unlikely that I’d still be bowling, so I had to send my family to the party with my regrets. However, I knew they’d be excited and rooting for me. Anyway, Pierre’s wife, Louise, kindly sent my wife text messages throughout our game - keeping my family updated on the progress. Is that nice or what?

It was a great final game. One hand was oh-so-tight, barely 18 inches of turn for my bowls, and the other hand was way-way wide. So the tactic was to try to put your first bowl just short of the jack on the tight side, making it very hard to dislodge or out-draw. Just as in our game last year, Pierre and I traded points back and forth all afternoon in a close contest. Ironically, I was able to prevail after finally figuring out the wide swingy side near the end.

It’s hard to express the feeling of winning, especially in your home district when you know so many of the spectators and volunteers. Mostly, for me, it’s just humility and appreciation for the chance to play this great game, and enjoy the company of a great bunch of fellow bowlers. If you are a novice, and you’ve thought about entering a tournament… do so! You won’t regret it.

Shirley Lenarduzzi obituary

Club Development Workshops

Bowls Canada held club development workshops in Woodstock and Hanover and participated in the OLBA District Development weekend. If your District would like to host a club development workshop email jschuknecht@bowlscanada.com

Bowls England announces the publication of the new 2019 Disability Bowls Advisory Guide.

The aim of the advisory guide is to provide clubs, volunteers and coaches with ideas and guidance on ensuring that everyone, regardless of disability or health condition, has access to the sport of bowls, whether as a beginner or an elite performer.

We encourage every club committee to familiarise itself with the content of this handbook because disability in its various forms has an impact on every club in the country. An electronic copy of the guide can be downloaded from:

http://playbowls.org/disability-bowls/advisory-guide?fbclid=IwAR0XFgyjeVk8AzH9V4CX51hW_5VIUnt03bYtrnGrrbW2sGJu0ecSVVvqIGc

1. Stay Active: Whether working out, going for a run, playing another winter sport, or just stretching and rolling “ghost” bowls in your basement, staying loose and limber is crucial to being able to excel next spring. Despite not being an overly physical sport, if you haven’t been active for several consecutive months, you could be in for a world of trouble. Playing in a tournament after taking 6 months off is akin to trying to do 500 lunges without proper warm-up. The likely result? Injury and soreness.

   Says Alex Scott from Saskatoon, “I roll imaginary bowls in my house during the winter. For real, it gives me a visual, keeps the motion/mechanics intact and allows you to stay in the zone, even if you aren’t actually bowling. As an example: I have fully transitioned to having my left foot ahead of my right foot when I’m on the mat (I was unconventional and always had my right foot ahead of my left for years). It took me 2 full off-seasons to make that change! With a 3^rd off-season approaching, I am ready to seek and destroy the ambitious souls of 2020!”

2. Watch archived bowls footage: Whenever you get the itch to play the game but can’t, find some of your favourite matches online and develop your game from the mental side. With numerous countries now archiving their games on YouTube and Facebook, there is lots of online footage available to keep you fresh on strategy and help improve your game plan for the following year. Scott also recommends reading up on bowls too: “Winning Becomes You”, by Lachlan Tighe and “Bowl with Bryant”, by David Bryant are two of his personal recommendations.

3. Stay connected with other competitive bowlers: Many people go into hibernation once the season is done only to come back and find that several dynamics, rules, policies and teams have shifted dramatically. In the competitive world, the landscape is fluid so don’t get lost in the shuffle! Stay connected and network.

4. Plan: The winter is the best time to lay out your plans for the coming year. What tournaments will you enter next year? When will you practice? What will you practice? How often? What are your goals for the year? How will you achieve them? Working with a coach to develop your annual plan over the winter is a great way to stay involved during the offseason. Whatever your plans are, ensure you are valuing what you choose to do. Don’t force anything that doesn’t suit you as a player. Some people value Provincial’s, National’s, Club events, cash tournaments, International Open’s, National Team Events, Coaching, Residing on a Board, Marketing, etc. Make sure you prioritize what you want to do and make an effort to improve your game with however you see fit.

• Try Short Mat: Although it’s a different game then regular bowls, it still requires the same concentration. It gives you the edge when your season picks back up and you’re immediately hitting all of your shots! If you don’t have short mat in the area, why not look to set one up in a local school gym, church basement, or community centre? The mats are only 45 feet in length, and can be rolled up for easy storage when not in use.

5. Cross-Training: If you haven’t yet given it a try, curling in the winter can help keep your activity up and your mental skills sharp. There are many valuable cross-overs between bowls and curling that help ensure you are ready to hit the green in top shape when spring finally arrives.

6. Take a Vacation: Pack a bag with your bowls and head down south where it’s warmer and you can still play! The US Open is one of the marquee options for open level championships but not the only one you can play in! Southern locations such as Florida and Arizona both offer rich opportunities to play bowls while the snow flies up north.

These are just some ideas for you to stay on top of your game during the offseason. As always we love hearing from you. Let us know what you do to hone your bowls skills in the offseason!

Bowls Canada Launches New Development Committee

Ottawa, ON | November 14, 2019

Bowls Canada is calling for applicants to fill the new Bowls Development Committee. An initiative of the new strategic plan “Bringing Canadians Together Through Bowls”, this exciting committee will facilitate the design and delivery of programming resources to implement BCB’s long-term development programs.

The committee will explore new and exciting initiatives to help Canadian bowlers and clubs develop on a nation-wide basis. Focusing on development in the club environment up to and including Train-to-Compete levels, the committee will advise on recruitment and retention strategies and the resources required for successful implementation.

“We are very excited about the role of this new operational committee”, said Executive Director Anna Mees. “These volunteers will be on the cutting edge of new development resources as we work together to implement our strategic plan initiatives.”

If you are a motivated and passionate volunteer with experience in long-term development, coaching or club programming, contact office@bowlcanada.com

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Disclaimer:The information and articles provided in this email represent the opinions of the articles author and should not be considered as endorsed by or policy of the Ontario Lawn Bowls Association OR it's Directors.

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